Dunaway Gardens was established in the 1920s on twenty acres in Coweta County. The gardens served as a theatrical training ground for performers and played host to ballet troupes, indoor and outdoor theater, as well as Walt Disney and Minnie Pearl.

Due to 50 years of gross neglect, Dunaway Gardens had grown unchecked into a veritable jungle 
overwhelmed by kudzu, ivy, wisteria and new growth trees. Before the rehabilitation, the amphitheater from the 1920s (left) was so overgrown it was hardly recognizable (right). The rehabilitation project revealed the original stepped terraces (below).  

Constructed on a granite hillside, a series of “garden rooms” including the arrowhead pool (left) were built on terraces supported by miles of hand-built granite retaining walls. Analysis of historic documentation and existing conditions and the original plan from the 1920s were used as touchstones for the three-year rehabilitation project, which cleared overgrowth (right) and returned the arrowhead pool  to its former glory (below).

Read more about the Dunaway Garden's Excellence in Rehabilitation Preservation Award